Meet Your New Teammate, AI: Asana’s Saket Srivastava

Meet Your New Teammate, AI: Asana’s Saket Srivastava

Author: MIT Sloan Management Review September 17, 2024 Duration: 34:17
Saket Srivastava, CIO at work management platform Asana, has had technology roles at organizations such as General Electric, IBM, and Fujitsu, moving from back-end IT services positions to more strategic business leadership roles. Asana has already been working with artificial intelligence for several years, Saket notes, and has seen the technology’s role evolve: Rather than simply optimizing tasks, it now often acts as more of a teammate as it’s integrated into core workflows to enhance productivity by taking on cognitive tasks like writing project status updates. Saket joins this episode to share his observations about the evolution of CIOs from back-end IT managers to front-line business leaders driving innovation and strategy, especially in the context of AI. He also discusses the benefits of being part of a CIO community in which people freely share their knowledge and experience and support one another as they navigate a rapidly evolving tech environment. Read the episode transcript here. Guest bio: Saket Srivastava is the CIO for work management platform Asana. He oversees the company’s educational and information technology organization, which involves optimizing technology systems and processes, connecting technology strategy to overarching business strategy, and ensuring that technology infrastructure supports organizational goals. Previously, Srivastava held executive positions at Square, Guidewire Software, and other leading technology companies. He holds a master’s degree from the Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the coordinating producers are Allison Ryder and Alanna Hooper. Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn. We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.

Ever wondered how some organizations manage to turn artificial intelligence from a buzzword into a genuine engine for growth, while others struggle to move beyond the pilot phase? Me, Myself, and AI, a production from MIT Sloan Management Review, goes straight to the source to find out. Instead of theoretical discussions, this podcast features candid conversations with the people who are actually building and implementing AI systems at scale. You'll hear directly from leaders at prominent companies like YouTube, Cisco, and Hugging Face as they recount their journeys-not just the polished successes, but the real-world challenges, strategic decisions, and sometimes surprising lessons learned along the way. Each episode digs into the practicalities of creating measurable business value, cutting through the noise to reveal what effective AI leadership and integration truly look like. It’s a focused exploration for anyone in technology, business, or education who wants to understand the human and operational stories behind the algorithms. Tune in for an unvarnished look at the future being built, one practical application at a time.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Me, Myself, and AI
Podcast Episodes
The Social Science of AI: Intel’s Elizabeth Anne Watkins [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:35
When Elizabeth Anne Watkins started her doctoral program, she landed a research role studying journalists’ use of security and privacy technologies — but she found the security tools confusing and difficult to use. Today…
Making Investments in AI: Samsung’s Hina Dixit [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:11
Hina Dixit’s interest in supporting people and solving problems has its roots in her family’s call office business, where she helped people place telephone calls when she was growing up in India. Later, after earning her…
Continuous Learning With AI: Aflac’s Shelia Anderson [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 22:21
Shelia Anderson parlayed a love of learning into studying the emerging field of engineering when she began her undergraduate education. After gaining experience leading IT teams in the technology, airline, and insurance…
Trust and Fraud Detection at Scale: Instagram’s Stephanie Moyerman [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:11
Stephanie Moyerman’s background in cosmology and astrophysics — where she worked with large data sets, looking for a signal among what was mostly noise — prepared her well for a career in data science and ethics. Today,…
Partnerships in AI Drive Conservation Efforts: WWF’s Dave Thau [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:07
Wildlife conservation efforts may not be the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks about opportunities to use artificial intelligence and machine learning. But Dave Thau, data and technology lead scientist at th…
Making 600 Billion Decisions With AI: Expedia Group’s Rathi Murthy [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:13
Rathi Murthy has always been passionate about technology roles that allow her to drive business transformation and improve customer experience. In her current role as CTO and president of Product & Technology for Expedia…
A One-Stop Data Shop: The Lego Group’s Anders Butzbach Christensen [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:26
Anders Butzbach Christensen began his career in product management before landing his dream job working for the Lego Group in Denmark. Today, as head of data engineering, he’s leading Lego’s digital transformation with a…
A Third Path to Talent Development: Delta’s Michelle McCrackin [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:42
Michelle McCrackin, senior manager of analytics learning and development at Delta Air Lines, never imagined that she’d be an analytics leader when she first joined the airline as an HR business partner. But, faced with t…
Out of the Lab and Into a Product: Microsoft’s Eric Boyd [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:07
As a partner with OpenAI — the company that recently wowed the tech world and the general public with its DALL-E image generator and ChatGPT chatbot — Microsoft helped to make those generative AI tools possible. But Micr…